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Adverse Effects of Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy for Common Malignancies: What Is the Quality of Information Patients Are Finding Online?

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Abstract

Little is known about the availability of high-quality online health information (OHI) for adverse effects (AEs) of radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy (CHT). Optimal search strategies for gaining access to high-quality OHI for these topics are not well-established. This study explores the quality of, potential disparities in, and possible search strategies for OHI pertaining to AEs of RT and CHT. One hundred twenty phrases on generalized and malignancy site-specific AEs of RT and CHT were searched on Google. The Health on the Net Foundation (HONcode) framework was applied to assess the quality of the first 100 websites for each search phrase. Comparisons of the availability of high-quality OHI were made between different languages, malignancy sites, and treatment modalities (RT vs CHT). Of the 12,000 RT and CHT AE websites analyzed, approximately half of the first 10 websites returned for each search were HONcode-accredited; approximately a fifth of the first 100 websites returned were HONcode-accredited. Such low availability of high-quality OHI persisted throughout different languages (English, French, Spanish) and common malignancy sites (breast, prostate, lung), with some variations between languages, malignancy sites, and RT vs CHT. Despite the important role of OHI in cancer patients’ approach to health information gathering and decision-making, the availability of high-quality OHI for the AEs of common oncologic treatments, RT and CHT, is low across different languages and common malignancy sites. Our findings demonstrate the need for improvement in the availability of high-quality OHI. Therefore, providers should take an active stance in directing patients to high-quality OHI.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Marie Gabrielle Dee for assistance with proofreading the manuscript. The authors would like to thank Marc Gregory Yu for statistical advice.

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  1. Edward Christopher Dee and Grace Lee contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Edward Christopher Dee & Grace Lee

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Correspondence to Edward Christopher Dee.

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Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplemental Table 1

Comparison of high-quality websites between radiotherapy and chemotherapy for search phrases of treatment adverse events in A: English B: French C: Spanish (DOCX 14 kb)

Supplemental Table 2

Comparison of high-quality websites between radiotherapy and chemotherapy for search phrases of treatment adverse events for A: Breast B: Prostate C: Lung (DOCX 14 kb)

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Dee, E.C., Lee, G. Adverse Effects of Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy for Common Malignancies: What Is the Quality of Information Patients Are Finding Online?. J Canc Educ 36, 178–188 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01614-2

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